


Scars

by rustyliver



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-09
Updated: 2013-12-09
Packaged: 2018-01-04 03:27:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,443
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1075980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rustyliver/pseuds/rustyliver
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They both have scars.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Scars

Jack wears her scars proudly.

(There is a reason why she hasn't owned a shirt for almost ten years.)

But Miranda hides hers.

Jack hates that.

.

Shepard drags her to Illium, mentioning something about an errand.

That's another thing she hates. Illium. It stinks as much as Omega but just because the people can afford a pungent enough perfume to cover up the smell, they think they're better somehow.

When they step out of the Normandy, Miranda is waiting for them, arms crossed, and is that a frown on her forehead? But as soon as she spots them, her posture straightens, arms to her sides and the frown vanishes like it wasn't there at all.

"What's going on?" Jack asks. "Shopping is bad enough, but with her?" she grimaces.

"What makes you think we're going shopping?" Shepard asks innocently.

"You said errand!" she bursts. "So I assumed we'd run out of food or something."

"No, we are not here to shop," Miranda says with an even tone. She eyes Jack up and down, then looks to Shepard before saying, "Come, we have no time to spare."

Jack hears the soft sigh she releases as she turns around, like she wanted someone else but she will just settle with Jack.

It brings Jack's blood to boil.

She's Jack.

You don't just settle with Jack.

But she follows along because she owes Shepard for helping her with her own little errand on Pragia, and Miranda for being there even though she was just there because Shepard told her to.

They meet an asari in Eternity, and from the conversation, Jack gathers that the errand is to rescue Miranda's sister from her dad.

She is pretty much the poster child for the screwed, and even she thinks that's messed up.

.

After they've rescued the girl, Miranda doesn't even want to take credit for it.

Jack doesn't understand it. She's always put a mark on her handiwork, whether it's a dead Krogan who looked at her wrong or a frigate she hijacked just because.

But she gets it.

Orianna is the person Miranda would have been if she wasn't treated like a lab rat when she was a kid. Orianna is the scars she's been hiding her whole life.

That's why you shouldn't hide your scars. You have to look at them every day until the pain is numbed.

But Shepard does that annoying thing where she gently forces you to do the thing you don't want to do.

It works like a charm.

For the first time, Jack sees Miranda actually expressing emotions--

The first time she sees Miranda sheds a tear.

And something happens in her chest that she can't explain.

.

Jack doesn't go around looking for fights. Fights look for her.

But that thing that happened in her chest, it's been making her more agitated than usual.

One second she's stabbing the meat on her plate and the next she's holding a fork to Miranda's throat, spitting out the question that's been in the back of her mind ever since their trip to Illium,

"Why can't you admit that Cerberus fucked me over?"

Miranda doesn't flinch.

"I don't have time for this," she mutters. Then she flings Jack across the mess hall before walking off towards her office.

Jack quickly jumps back up.

She stalks after Miranda, her steps not as quiet and composed, and catches up as the door to Miranda's office opens. She releases a Slam but Miranda dodges it without even looking back causing the Slam to flip over Miranda's desk and everything on it.

Miranda turns, glowing dark blue except her eyes. Those are bright red and flashing murderously at her.

Jack smirks. "Do you have time now?"

There is nothing Miranda can throw at her except a punch. Not yet anyway. And Jack is certain that a porcelain doll crafted carefully in a fancy lab doesn't know how to hit.

"At least I'm not a factory reject," Miranda hisses.

"Not according to your dad," Jack counters as venomously.

That did it.

Porcelain knuckles hit her jaw.

She knew it was coming but she let them land on her just to see if they would break.

They don't.

They felt like steel.

Her gums bleed from the blow.

She licks the blood off her lower lip, her smile growing wider. She grips air tightly to steady her shaking hand.

"My turn."

.

After that, after Shepard yelled at both of them, after she promised they could tear each other out however they want when they're done saving the world, they pretend the other doesn't exist.

Well, Jack grunts every time she runs into Miranda or when they go on a mission together, but Miranda completely ignores Jack, not even a wise ass comment about her disapproval of Jack's existence.

It's weird.

And kinda quiet.

Jack realizes that almost all the conversations she's had on the Normandy are her bickering with Miranda about Cerberus.

She tries to pick a fight with Jacob and that nosy Yeoman but they both just end up agreeing with her. Jacob nods quietly and the Yeoman keeps asking her how it makes her feel.

Not that she's bothered by it.

Peace and quiet are just things she is not used to.

.

The quiet carries on even after she left the Normandy.

Even when she's tried her damndest to fill every minute of her days with the loudest sounds she could cause. Not her ribs cracking from getting headbutted by a krogan twice her size. Not the shower of bullets from mercs trying to steal her bounty. Not even crashing an Atlas with a shuttle could fill the silence.

After a while, she stops denying that Miranda isn't at the front and center of this thing. She starts attacking any Cerberus cell she could find even though she knows well enough that Miranda has cut all ties with Cerberus. But that is the only thing she knows of Miranda, her stupid devotion for Cerberus.

One day, the Alliance comes knocking. They want her to mould young minds. Said her attacks on Cerberus means she's on their side, and it doesn't hurt that she has served with the legendary Shepard.

She tells the Alliance officer, "You're just asking for trouble."

"We know," he says.

"And you still want me?"

"Yes, ma'am."

No one's ever called her 'ma'am' before. It's fucking hilarious.

So she accepts the job.

.

"Teaching isn't too bad," she tells Miranda earnestly. She must be drunk. "The kids just do whatever I tell them to."

After almost a year of searching for Miranda, here she is, sitting across from Jack in Shepard's fancy apartment. Who knew a party invitation would do it?

"I hope none of it scars them for life," Miranda says, sipping on her wine.

"Oh, I know how to do that," Jack replies, wagging a finger at her, "and I haven't done that."

"I'm sure," Miranda nods, her voice quiet.

"Are you?"

"Why?"

"I haven't seen any of yours."

"What do you mean?"

Jack gulps down what's left of her beer. She hasn't thought about the quiet for some time now. Yelling at a bunch of kids seemed to have taken her mind of it.

She only remembered it an hour ago when Miranda walked into the door--when it's finally gone, replaced by the sound of her heart pounding. She used to think it was anger, back when anger was all she knew.

"Your scars. I haven't seen them."

Miranda stares, first at Jack, then her glass, and empties it out too.

"Come," she says.

She leads Jack into the guest room and closes the door after she's made sure that Kasumi is not in it.

"You can't see my scars," she says, her fingers tracing, but not touching, the scar on Jack's stomach up to her chest. "But," Miranda pulls her hands back to lower her suit to her hips. "It's here," she points towards her left shoulder blade, "where they cut through me when I was five to fit me with a biotic implant. Here," her chest, "when I was nine. And here," her wrist, "when I was twelve. Almost every inch of my body, but you can't see them because I was designed for perfection."

She looks down. "Doesn't mean they don’t hurt."

"I know," Jack utters softly. She lifts Miranda's chin back up so their eyes could meet. "I know."

.

Jack wears her scars proudly because she has to.

Miranda hides hers because she’s forced to.

Jack still hates it but they are going to learn to share each of their scars with each other.

And that, Jack loves. 


End file.
